Numerous techniques have been heretofore devised for the vending of newspapers, magazines and the like. These techniques generally fall into two classifications: a) the semi honor system wherein the purchaser gains access to a plurality of papers and is trusted to remove only one and, b) the single copy system wherein the purchaser gains access to a single paper.
The former has become the more common because the value of the time required to load and unload the latter frequently exceeds the value of the merchandise losses experienced in the former. U.S. Pat. Nos. 464,067 Foster, 1,256,071 Steiner, 2,904,216 Poland and 3,946,846 Pepiciello all describe drop shelf newspaper periodical vending machines but none teach a shelf configuration which facilitates loading and unloading as does the present invention. Pepiciello in the above mentioned patent does recognize the problem and does teach an improved means of resetting the shelf release mechanism to reduce the servicing time, the present invention does substantially further reduce the servicing time by making it easier and thus quicker to remove outdated material and to reload the machine with new editions.